


He fell asleep over Bristol

by Nobodyknowstrouble



Series: What went unseen [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Voldemort's disappearance, Baby Harry Potter, Gen, Post-First War with Voldemort, Post-Voldemort's Halloween 1981 Attack on the Potter Family (Harry Potter), St Mungo's Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28199475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobodyknowstrouble/pseuds/Nobodyknowstrouble
Summary: Where was Harry the whole day before he was left with the Dursleys and how did the rumors about the boy-who-lived even begin to spread?
Series: What went unseen [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133120
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	He fell asleep over Bristol

Mila had been a fully trained healer for over a decade by now. She had worked during a war. She had been sure there was nothing that she hadn’t heard of, nothing that could surprise her.  
She had been wrong.  
  
It already started out as an odd night. She was constantly working and picking up snippets of what had happened.  
Voldemort was gone.  
The death eaters were out of control.  
Aurors and volunteer fighters arrived in masses at the hospital, everyone covered with various injuries but beaming like it was the happiest day in world history.  
For every hurt auror there were about five arrested death eaters.  
  
Nobody knew what had happened. What had happened to Voldemort. The only obvious thing was that the death eaters had found our pretty fast that it had happened. One of the aurors Mila treated, mentioned an outburst of extremely powerful magic that had been detected in Godric's Hollow. Apparently the aurors had been supposed to investigate it - but only minutes after the outburst, the death eaters had run rampant and all forces had been needed to keep them in check.  
  
All that was incredible. It felt like a dream. But it still wasn’t what made Mila so unnerved. What left her utterly disbelieving. She had no idea what she was going to experience, before she stepped into the room where Hagrid the Hogwarts Groundskeeper was waiting with an infant.  
  
“Hagrid”, she greeted him with a practiced but genuine smile. It was impossible to attend Hogwarts for seven years without starting to adore the big hearted groundskeeper.  
“I am sorry but I have no information about why you are here – Healer Cana only said that Dumbledore himself send word that it was a matter of utmost urgency.”  
Of course that usually wasn’t the practice of Sankt Mungos. Had anyone else sent word, they would have rolled their eyes and stayed true to standard procedure. But even if Dumbledore's word hadn’t held the power it did, they still would have complied - even if only out of pure curiosity.  
  
“It’s about little Harry here”, said Hagrid and placed the bundle in a way to give Mila a better look.  
He smiled down at the boy.  
“He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol. He’s got a cut on his forehead, better look him over, make sure there isn’ more.”  
He shot the boy a concerned look.  
Mila made notes while he was talking.  
“What did you say was his name?”  
“Harry Potter”  
“Where is he from?”  
“Godric's Hollow”  
“His parents names?”  
“Lily an’ James Potter”  
Mila nodded.  
“And where are the parents right now?”  
To her surprise Hagrid let out a miserable howl and blew his nose.  
“Didn’ survive the attack”, he finally chocked out.  
Mila's heart seemed to break. Finding out that of all nights, the boy had lost his parents on the night everything had ended, made it even more heartbreaking.  
“Could you describe the attack to me? I need to have a rough picture to know what to look for.”  
“I-I only know what I saw and what Dumbledore told me when he found out about the magic outburst”, Hagrid admitted, still teary eyed. Mila nodded and waited patiently.  
  
Only after Hagrid started talking again, did she realise that he had to be talking about the same outburst the Aurors mentioned.  
“You-know-who broke into their home”, Hagrid blew his nose. Mila felt cold. Where was this story leading to? Surely the boys parents, Lily and James Potter, couldn’t be the ones who defeated Voldemort?  
“James lay in the entrance hall and Lily was in Harry's room – seems to me you-know-who made quick work with 'em, they didn’ even have their wands“, he said bitterly before blowing his nose again.  
Milas thoughts were spinning. She didn’t know where this was going – the only implication was too insane to even think about.  
“He seems ter have tried the same with poor little Harry”, he continued in a mixture of anger and sadness, “but he couldn’ do it. Dumbledore said the curse musta rebound. Took down You-know-who an' gave Harry that cut on his forehead.”  
Mila had lost every pretence of professionalism while she listened.  
What Hagrid told her couldn’t be true.  
How could it?  
But the whole hospital was buzzing with the aftermath of Voldemorts defeat.  
“There was an explosion, whole roof over Harry's room caved in an' half the wall was blown away. But didn’ look like it hit Harry – after you-know-who it couldn’ be a problem to defend himself against a little rubble.”  
Hagrid looked at the baby, unashamedly proud.  
  
Mila was speechless. Shocked. Disbelieving.  
And she was unbelievably thankful when her instincts took over.  
“All right, thanks. Lay him down right there, exactly-“  
She run a few diagnostic spells over the boy with the results that besides the cut on his forehead he did not have any injuries.  
She disregarded the standard procedure when she didn’t immediately check him for effects of dark curses. She wasn’t ready to find out how much truth lay in Hagrid's crazy tale. Instead she bought herself time by thoroughly cleaning the boys cut. But when she tried to close it, it turned out to be impossible.  
Not hard.  
Not beyond her skills.  
Impossible.  
She was trained to know the difference.  
  
With shaking hands did she point her wand at the baby once again and put the spell on him that would detect the use of dark magic.  
And it showed results.  
Yes dark magic was used on the boy.  
But it couldn’t detect what kind of dark magic.  
There were only two possibilities. Either the used curse was extremely new and not yet registered by the hospitals diagnostic spells.  
Or it was a curse people usually didn’t survive.  
  
Everything in Mila, her most primal instincts told her that it was impossible. Had someone told her about it, she wouldn’t have believed it. Had someone only last morning told her what she would experience, she probably would have laughed.  
But Voldemort was gone and the Aurors talked about some incredibly strong magical outburst in Godric's Hollow and in front of her lay a small baby - the only survivor of this outburst.  
  
She mechanically went through the motions of her next diagnostic spell.  
The spell was much less accurate than the ones she had used before. It had a wider range – varying from natural causes to dark magic – but it didn’t show how strong the effects were, where the magic was concentrated, the vital values, the most dangerously injured parts – or any of the things necessary while working with living individuals.  
It was the spell used to determine someone's cause of death.  
  
But even with all those missing details there was a clear result. Mila almost passed out.  
The killing curse.  
Harry Potter had been hit by the killing curse and he had survived.  
Completely unscathed beside a cut on his forehead.  
The only person to ever survive that curse.  
And he had defeated Voldemort.  
It was obvious. There was no other explanation. Dumbledore had said it. And prove lay in front of her, peacefully asleep.  
  
“Excuse me for a moment”, she said breathlessly.  
Hagrid looked concerned.  
“Is Harry alright?”  
“Yeah-don’t worry about him. I’ll be back in a minute.”  
She managed to stay calm until she had closed the door behind her. Then she started running across the halls and, without slowing down, sprinted into one of the treatment rooms where her superior was just attending to a young auror.  
  
“The boy-the boy-he did-“, she chocked out, waving her arms frantically.  
In a disconnected part of her brain she knew what she must look like.  
“Healer Kerr?”, asked Saorise with a mixture of concern and reprimand, obviously trying to hold onto a façade of professionalism.  
“What is the matter?”  
“The boy-you have to see this!”  
“The boy? What boy?”  
“The boy who _lived_!”, Mila got out and only received blank faces.  
“You-you have to-it was him!”, she babbled.  
She couldn’t control her thoughts.  
“He caused that outburst-he-the-he-only a year old-and you-know-who killed his parents but he-he defeated him-and he lived!”  
The Auror and Saoirse starred at her.  
“Mila what are you talking about?”  
“You have to see this-he survived the killing curse!”  
“Don’t be ridiculous-“  
“See for yourself-I couldn’t believe it myself-he had no problems with the parents but he failed with the boy!”

Saoirse still didn’t seem like she believed a single word.  
It was more concern for the boy than anything else that made her shoot a hesitant glance at the Auror.  
“Don’t worry, Healer Cana”, he said. He watched Mila curiously. “I can wait.”  
Saoirse still hesitated, shot Mila a measuring look and then turned to the auror again.  
“It-I am incredibly sorry-I have to make sure-see that the boy is properly attended to.”  
Her tone suggested that she highly doubted Mila's care at the moment.  
Mila couldn’t fault her.  
“What was his name again?”, Saoirse asked.  
“Harry-Harry Potter”, answered Mila.  
“You have to see this – he got away with nothing but a scar, shaped like a lightning bolt-“  
She closed the door behind them.  
  
Saoirse followed her to the room, keeping her professional mask all the while she was running diagnostic spells-  
But then she did the spell to detect dark magic, and she got the same result Mila had.  
Then she used the spell to determine causes of death.  
Saoirse let out an odd kind of scream and bolted out of the room.  
Only a few minutes later she came back with Healer Harper, the head of the emergency station.  
“Elodie, now listen, I know it sounds insane but-“  
She broke off and shoved her disapproving boss into the room.  
“You need to see this!”  
And another round of diagnostic spells was run over Harry Potter.  
And another shocked silence followed.  
“I have to-that-just a moment-“  
And Healer Harper left the room.  
Saoirse looked like she could barely restrain herself from passing out.  
“I have to-someone-Mila could you finish my patient?”, she asked faintly.  
Mila didn’t really want to leave but she still did as asked.  
  
“So? How’s the boy who lived?”, the auror asked with a mixture of teasing and genuine curiosity.  
“I am not sure but I think Healer Harper just went to fetch another healer to have a look at the medical wonder”  
“Who’s Healer Harper?”  
“The healer Healer Cana fetched after she couldn’t longer pretend I’ve lost my mind.”  
The auror's mouth fell open.  
“So it’s true? This boy-Harry Potter-he survived the killing curse with nothing but a lightning bolt scar?”  
“It’s not a scar yet”, Mila said dryly, “It’s only going to be one – the cut is completely resistant to magical healing.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she would usually be in big trouble for spreading medical information so carelessly. But usually there weren’t one year olds defeating dark wizards and surviving killing curses.  
“But-but you-know-who – does that mean you-know-who was defeated by a one year old?”  
Mila nodded silently.  
The auror looked like passing out. It seemed to be a trend today.  
“But how can you be sure?”  
Mila shot him a half annoyed look.  
“It’s undeniable he survived the killing curse, he is the only one to survive the attack in Gordric's Hollow – what other explanation is there? Plus”, Mila added as an afterthought, “he’s brought here on Dumbledore's orders and that’s what he said happened.”  
Mila applied the last potion onto a burn on the aurors arm and looked as it closed in front of her eyes. He was healed and she could let him go and return to where she really wanted to be.  
“You’re done – now you can go right back into the fight and beat up death eaters or whatever.”  
“Nah”, the auror said grinning, “when I left we already had the death eaters under control. All that’s waiting for me is a bunch of paperwork.”  
Mila raised an eyebrow.  
“Paperwork?”  
“Maybe one or another fire whisky to celebrate the end of the war”, he admitted.  
“I’m gonna raise a glass to Harry Potter – the boy who lived”  
Mila couldn’t blame him and was honestly just glad that his words meant the emergency station would slow down and she could spend her time with her original patient.  
  
It had only taken her a few minutes to heal the auror and when Mila returned to Harry Potter she saw how Healer Maddock, head of the department for curse injuries, running diagnostic spells.  
They were a lot more specialized than the ones Mila, Saoirse and even Healer Harper had used, but that wasn’t surprising given his area of expertise.  
  
With every passing minute the room filled with more and more healers, every one with different areas of expertise or specialties and every one determined to examine Harry Potter.  
But no matter how many diagnostic spells were run over him, they all brought the same result.  
He was fine.  
He was perfectly healthy.  
Except for the cut on his forehead, caused by the killing curse.  
  
While the healers were still at work, aurors came by to get confirmation of the story and even patients and visitors found their way to them.  
The word had obviously already spread.  
And even though they send every non-healer away, nobody could really fault the people for their curiosity.  
  
I took hours until the whole group of healers was finally done, and even then they only managed to let go, because Hagrid grew adamant that he had to go.  
During those hours several healers had to go and attend to other patients, but they always had found their way back to stare in wonder at the peacefully sleeping baby.  
  
Nobody had a clue how he had done it but there wasn’t any doubt anymore that he had.  
Everybody knew it without a doubt: Harry Potter was the one who had defeated Voldemort.  
  
During the days events, the source of the rumors would be lost.  
Nobody would ever know where they came from.  
How could they? There were several sources.  
A visitor hearing, and telling everyone who would listen, the words of Healer Saoirse Cana, about a boy who took down Voldemort.  
The witches and wizards of Godric's Hollow, spreading word that Lily and James Potter were dead.  
A patient nearby when Healer Maddock was pulled out of his break to look at a “boy who survived the attack in Godric's Hollow”.

Nobody would remember how they had gotten the details, about the lightning bolt scar, the age of the boy and his name, before Dumbledore had confirmed them.  
Nobody but the three people present, would ever know how Mila had frantically run into the room to find her superior.  
Nobody but the present healers would remember that during the whole commotion, Harry Potter did not once wake.  
Nobody, except maybe Hagrid would remember that he had fallen asleep over Bristol.  
  
But what nobody would ever forget were the words - even though they didn’t remember where they came from.  
The words for the first time said breathless and frantically waving and stuttering.  
The words spread in entire Britain.  
The words everyone would raise their glasses to.  
“To Harry Potter – the boy who lived”


End file.
